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The Supervisor (Story)
Candice Danzig sat in front of her computer, her fingers drumming out a rhythmical beat what song she had already forgotten belonged to. She minimised the only open window - an internet browser - and stared at the face of her husband on the desktop wallpaper. Beep. With a sigh, she opened another window, to see a pending voice call from her secretary. With the touch of a button, the secretary's merry voice came through. "Corporal, there's a man here to see you." What, at this time of the day? It's three a.m.! was what she nearly said, but she caught herself before that. Anyone visiting her at this hour was sure to have some kind of special clearance, and a very important matter at hand. "Send him in," she said, and cut the connection. The door was opened seconds later, by a Hispanic man in his thirties, and who looked as cool as a cucumber. He was dressed in a neat three-piece suit, and his cufflinks bore the symbol of the Confederate. But what really attracted her attention was the tie clip he was wearing. It was a silver one with no markings, but from underneath it, a soft blue light visible even in the glare of her office lights shone. This was no simple Confederate agent. "Good morning, Corporal Candice. Good alliteration." He pulled out the metal chair on the opposite side of her table, and sat down, smiling. "Have you received any memos about my arrival?" "No." She picked up a pen and twirled it around in her fingers, her mind taking note of his unusual form of first name term. "What brings you here?" "Oh, I'm so terribly rude, am I not? I am an Administrator with the Confederate." At that, Candice's eyes widened a fraction. Administrator was not a title people heard much, much less someone situated on an stupid planet like Bellerhum. "I'm not authorised to tell you my real name, but you can call me Callistrope." It clicked. Administrator Callistrope, head of the Confederate bioresearch unit, famous for discovering the cure for cancer. Some said that he was a genius, and others were more convinced that he was lucky. Candice was willing to believe both. "Yes, Administrator." The man burst into laughter after that sentence. He shook his head smiling. "I've no idea what's wrong with you military people, always the formalities!" He coughed and straightened himself. "Sorry, on a more serious note, have you heard about the new flu pandemic?" "What, the one that shut down the entire Soljek seaboard? Yeah, I have." Callistrope took out a computer tablet from inside his coat. "High Command cleared you yesterday to view this video." He brought a clip up on the screen; the first frame was frozen with the view of the destroyed city of Hellek. Candice was hooked immediately. Hellek had been destroyed by a nuclear reactor malfunction, wasn't it? She had a feeling Callistrope would prove her wrong in more ways than she could imagine. He did. "The virus is alive, Candice. We're going to need you to evacuate every single officer off the continent, so we can bombard it from orbit. I suggest you start the evac as soon as possible." "What about civilians?" He flashed her a smile. "Our biohazard teams will be arriving in a few hours." "I can't just leave the civilians to die here," she protested, "that's against everything we stand for. Against everything you ''stand for." "Desperate times call for desperate needs, Candice." He put a small wooden box on the table, and stood. "I'll see you on Chiraz...hopefully," he added. As he left the room, Candice's hands went to the lock on the side of the box. Slowly, she flipped it open, and gradually lifted the lid. Inside was a semi-automatic pistol with a full magazine, and a piece of paper which read: ''I suggest you save the last bullet for yourself. She slammed it shut, and shoved the thing under her desk. No, she couldn't leave the civilians, but what she had seen happen to Team Foxtrot in the video was enough to make anyone get the hell out of wherever they were. Candice opened a link to her secretary again. "Schedule a flight to Capilis Launch Station please. Thank you." She peeked into the wooden box again, and sighed for the second time that day. Candice loaded the bullets into the gun's magazine, and secured it in her holster. It was going to be a long day.